Aspects of the present specification relate to ascertaining an online location of a person. More particularly, the present specification relates to locating a person online using an internet service search engine.
An internet service is an application that provides its functionality to a user over the internet, often through a web page. Examples of internet services include, for example, web-based social networking services, web-based collaboration software, web-based email accounts, and the like. Such internet services provide the advantage of portability in that a user may access an internet service from nearly any location with a connection to the internet.
With the increasing popularity of online collaboration and social networking, the number of internet services available to users has grown. In fact, it is very common for one person to maintain a separate account with many different internet services. While the use of multiple internet services increases the avenues by which a user can communicate with other people, it can be difficult to ascertain which internet service would be best for contacting a user or receiving the most recent information posted by the user at any given time.